© Jan Erik Sigdell, Dutovlje, Slovenia, January 2011

Could some spheres in the Universe actually be holes?

And even gateways to other dimensions?
Are there multidimensional life forms?
These are some thoughts which will appear strange to some readers. It may take some amount of
mathematical thinking to understand what I mean. And I don’t mean that this is real, but it is a
speculation. Or maybe it is more than that…
In the two-dimensional world
Let us start with a two-dimensional world, being exampled by the screen surface you are now look-
ing at. Reading this text about Flatland may help to visualize what we are discussing here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM. The text is from a book printed a century ago (see the
reference at the end).
What is a hole IN Flatland? It could be illustrated thus:

It could be limited, having two ends, or it could be infinite, stretching all the way along the surface
that we call Flatland (as it is called in that book). If it is limited, it appears as a kind of tunnel to the
inhabitants of Flatland. They can enter at one end and leave at the other. To them it actually is a tun-
nel. If it is infinite, it will appear as an insurmountable barrier to them and they will never know
what is on the other side.
This hole is totally IN the two-dimensional world and doesn’t appear as a hole when seen from the
three-dimensional world. Instead it then appears as two lines, in the simplest form being straight
and parallel. An inhabitant in three-dimensional world could enter this two-dimensional tunnel also
from the sides, in the third dimension passing over or under one of its lines, and thus even go to the
other side of the tunnel.
So what, then, is a hole THROUGH Flatland? If it goes THROUGH it, it must penetrate Flatland in
such a way that someone in the three-dimensional world, passing through that hole, can go
THROUGH Flatland and come out in the three-dimensional world on the other side of it. It could be
illustrated like this:

To the inhabitants in Flatland, it would appear as an insurmountable wall that looks the same, seen
from any direction, a two-dimensional sphere. They can only go around it but not through it, since
they would have to leave Flatland and pass through the third dimension to do that. But they don’t
know and don’t believe that there is a three-dimensional world.
An inhabitant in the three-dimensional world could enter this two-dimensional sphere from any
side, through the third dimension passing above or under the circular line, which is how the hole
looks to him. If he can take on a two-dimensional shape, he could go inside this hole and out above
or under wall, as if he went through it, and surprisingly appear like out of nowhere to the inhabitants
of the two-dimensional world.
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If there is light in the three-dimensional world, it may pass into Flatland through the edges of this
hole, so that the inhabitants there might see it shining, like a kind of a sun to them.
In the three-dimensional world
So what is a hole IN the three-dimensional world? It could be illustrated like this:

This is, in its simplest form, a cylindrical tunnel (through whatever three-dimensional structure). If
it is limited, you can enter at one end and leave at the other. But seen from the side, it isn’t necessar-
ily a barrier to an inhabitant in the three-dimensional world, since he can also move in a third di-
mension (which the inhabitant in Flatland cannot) and thus go above (or below) the whole tunnel to
the other side of it (and above or below the structure in which this hole is). If it is infinite, he can
only go above or below it, but not enter it.
This whole is entirely IN the three-dimensional world and, seen from a four-dimensional world, it
would appear as some structure IN the three-dimensional world, in which the inhabitant of a four-
dimensional world can at the same time see both its inside and its outside. Such an inhabitant can
enter the tunnel from any side, also apparently “through” its wall (actually going through the fourth
dimension to do so) – as it would appear to an inhabitant of the three-dimensional world, who is in
the tunnel. If the four-dimensional person can take on a three-dimensional shape, he would then to
the three-dimensional person appear as if he came out of nowhere.
Now what is a hole THROUGH the three-dimensional world? By analogy with what was discussed
above, it would be accessible only from the four-dimensional space and someone in that space
could go through it to the other side of the three-dimensional world. If he can take on a three-
dimensional shape, he could also go “through” the wall of that hole and appear in the three-
dimensional world, like out of nowhere.

By analogy to the hole THROUGH Flatland, that there appears as a two-dimensional sphere, this
hole would have to be a three-dimensional sphere in its simplest form. The inhabitants of the three-
dimensional world could only see this sphere and not conceive of it as a hole.
Could some celestial “bodies” actually be such holes?
But what then about gravity? We know that masses attract each other and call it gravity. Could it
also (and not only!) be, that dimensions attract each other, too? In that case one would observe an-
other kind of gravity at such a sphere. Apparently the same, but with another cause. (Or, maybe,
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masses are also holes, in a way, that are filled and not empty, so that what appears as mass attrac-
tion in the three-dimensional world could actually also be a kind of dimensional attraction, at least
in part…)
And if there is light (including infrared light that we perceive as heat) in higher dimensions, such a
sphere would appear as shining to the inhabitants of the three-dimensional world, like a sun. That
would certainly not mean that alls suns (stars) are such holes, but maybe some could?
Gateways between dimensions?
If there are such spheres that are actually holes THROUGH the three-dimensional world, they could
also be gateways to other dimensions. And some could be like tunnels – not IN – but THROUGH
the three-dimensional world. Could these be the so called “worm-holes” in science-fiction stories,
which some modern physicists actually believe could be real?
Vehicles near the sun?
There are several videos in the Internet that appear to unclearly (unsharply) show huge “UFOS” in
the vicinity of the sun. In view of the above, we might ask: Are they really vehicles? Or are they
simply artifacts in the image (or in some cases even manipulations)? If they are real: How can they
be so near the sun without being burned and destroyed? Did they in that case even come out from
the sun? Did they come from other dimensions in shapes that are only partially three-dimensional
and which can, in its other dimensions, easily support the heat from the sun, because it in other di-
mensions it is not really perceived as heat?
Can there be two-dimensional life forms?
Stephen Hawking has claimed that life would be impossible in a world with less than three dimen-
sions, argumenting that “a two-dimensional dog would fall apart by its intestines”. The intestinal
channel through him would divide the dog in two parts, which in Flatland could not be held to-
gether. This argument is, of course, invalid, since such a dog would have to let the digested rests of
the food leave him the same way they entered… The food would go into him one way and the rests
would leave him the same way. There actually are some molluscular life forms in the sea (and
maybe also on land) that function just like that! Therefore, his argument is astonishing...

This dog could not exist in Flatland, This dog could exist in Flatland
it would fall apart
We don’t know if there are two-dimensional life forms, but the possibility cannot be excluded.
Can there be multidimensional life?
“Multidimensional” here means having more than three dimensions. If there are multidimensional
worlds, could there also be life forms beyond “our” three dimensions?
If there are and they also have three-dimensional parts, we would with our three-dimensional sen-
sory organs perceive only the latter. If they have only “higher-dimensional” parts, we could not per-
ceive them at all. They would then be like what we call ghosts or spirits. Not less physical in their
worlds, but merely unperceivable to us. This possibility cannot be excluded and could explain many
strange and “parapsychological” (as they are called) phenomena… If they can temporarily take on a
three-dimensional shape, we would see them appear and disappear.
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Are we, then, actually multidimensional ourselves? Nearly all religions claim that we have a soul,
and most of them that this soul after death lives on without the body, normally unperceivable to our
three-dimensional sensory organs. Such things as near-death experiences can be seen as evidence
for this (not as proof). Could it be that the soul is who we really are, but we have temporarily taken
on a three-dimensional shape, called body, and have become so focused on this body that we have
forgotten about what else we are? Do we then after death return the focus to our original multidi-
mensional state of being? And then discover that we also have other but forgotten sensory abilities
that can perceive higher dimensions? And could it be that some very few persons in bodies have a
certain and limited access to sensory abilities of the soul and, therefore, can see and hear things oth-
ers don’t perceive? But we just don’t believe them and think that they are “crazy” – some could be,
yet others not (and maybe not very few)… like a man born blind doesn’t believe that there are col-
ors and fails to imagine what they could be…
But why should we take on three-dimensional shapes? Maybe to have three-dimensional experi-
ences… And why that, then? Well, that would in itself be a “new dimension” of thinking, specula-
tion and logical considerations…
Multidimensionality and orthogonality
A point has no dimension.
A line has one dimension.
A plane has two, describable in x- and y-coordinates.
The three-dimensional space: x-, y- and z-coordinates.
The four-dimensional space accordingly: x-, y,-, z- and (let’s say) w-coordinates.
“Impossible”, we object! There can be no w-axis that is orthogonal to all the three others. This can
be dealt with mathematically, but never visualized. Or do we here hit the limits of our three-
dimensional consciousness? Could it be that it is unimaginable only for our three-dimensional
thinking? A hypothetical (as an example) five-dimensional being would see things very differently!
He could easily visualize that and even a further (let’s call it) v-axis that stands at right angles to all
the other four… since, after all, he lives in such dimensions! It would be a bit hard for him to under-
stand how limited we are, but for us it is a koan.
A possible solution of the koan?
Maybe our way to try to grasp it by means of coordinate systems is actually limiting our view? The
dimension of a space is informally defined as the minimum of coordinates required to specify a
point in that space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension). It might be that Cartesian coordinates
are only valid up to three dimensions, and that from there on a point in space is specified in another
way, even though we don’t (yet) know how. The hypothetical five-dimensional being would know
it… Our idea of multidimensional coordinate systems may in that case be superseded by another
concept.
It may also be that our concept of “point” is valid only in three dimensions. In higher dimensions,
the concept could be different, wider and include aspects we cannot imagine.
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Reference
Edwin Abbott Abbott: Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions, 2nd revised edition, Seeley &
Co., London, 1884.